Boys' Experimentation and Persistence in Developmental Pathways Toward Serious Delinquency

We expand on earlier work documenting developmental pathways in disruptive child behavior towards serious forms of delinquency in boys. Three pathways we hypothesized in our previous work: (a) An Authority Conflict Pathway prior to the age of 12, that starts with stubborn behavior, and has defiance as a second stage, and authority avoidance as a third stage; (b) A Covert Pathway that starts with minor convert acts, has property damage as a second stage, and moderate to serious delinquency as a third stage; and (c) An Overt Pathway that starts with minor aggression, has physical fighting as a second stage, and violence as a third stage. We now refine this work by distinguishing between boys who experiment and those who persist in disruptive behavior. Data are presented showing that the fit for the three pathways is better for persisters than for experimenters. Also, the proportion of persisters that enter each pathway at the first stage (rather than at later stages) is higher than that for experimenters. Penetration in each pathway was more common among boys who received a diagnosis of Attention-Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. Boys' rate of offending increased with penetration into pathways and with persistence on more than one pathway. Boys' persistence and advancement in the Overt or the Covert Pathway was almost invariably accompanied by their advancement in the Authority Conflict Pathway. The classification of boys according to persistence and pathways accounted for the majority of high rate offenders, according to both self-report and court adjudicated offenses.     

Timing of Onset and Correlates of Severe Conduct Problems in Adjudicated Girls and Boys

An influential model for explaining the development of conduct disorder (CD) in boys proposed that there are two distinct trajectories through which boys develop CD that differ on the timing of onset, correlates, and outcome. In this study, the applicability of this two trajectory approach to the development of CD in girls was tested. Participants were 72 adolescents (mean = 15.17 years of age; SD = 1.32) who were adjudicated for serious patterns of illegal behavior in a secure detention facility, nearly all of whom (94.4%) met criteria for a diagnosis of CD. Based on a combination of youth self-report and file review, boys in the sample were fairly evenly split between a childhood-onset to their CD symptoms and an adolescent-onset to their symptoms. In contrast, girls more uniformly exhibited an adolescent-onset to their severe antisocial behavior. Despite this later age of onset, the antisocial girls tended to resemble the childhood-onset boys on personality traits such as showing problems of impulse control and showing combination of both a callous and unemotional interpersonal style and poor impulse control. These findings suggest modifications of or alternatives to the two-trajectory model may be needed to explain the development of CD in girls.     

Social Identity and Youth Aggressive and Delinquent Behaviors in a Context of Political Violence

The goal of the current study was to examine the moderating role of in‐group social identity on relations between youth exposure to sectarian antisocial behavior in the community and aggressive behaviors. Participants included 770 mother‐child dyads living in interfaced neighborhoods of Belfast. Youth answered questions about aggressive and delinquent behaviors as well as the extent to which they targeted their behaviors toward members of the other group. Structural equation modeling results show that youth exposure to sectarian antisocial behavior is linked with increases in both general and sectarian aggression and delinquency over one year. Reflecting the positive and negative effects of social identity, in‐group social identity moderated this link, strengthening the relationship between exposure to sectarian antisocial behavior in the community and aggression and delinquency towards the out‐group. However, social identity weakened the effect for exposure to sectarian antisocial behavior in the community on general aggressive behaviors. Gender differences also emerged; the relation between exposure to sectarian antisocial behavior and sectarian aggression was stronger for boys. The results have implications for understanding the complex role of social identity in intergroup relations for youth in post‐accord societies.     

Different Pathways to Juvenile Delinquency: Characteristics of Early and Late Starters in a Sample of Previously Incarcerated Youth

We examined the differences between early and late start juvenile delinquents in a sample of 531 previously incarcerated youth in Oregon's juvenile justice system. Data were analyzed with logistic regression to predict early start delinquency based on four explanatory variables: foster care experience, family criminality, special education disability, and socioeconomic status. Youth with foster care experience were four times more likely to be early start delinquents than youth with no foster care experience. Youth with a family member convicted of a felony were two times more likely to be early start delinquents than youth with no family felony. Implications for future research are discussed, as well as implications for practice and policy. We suggest that future studies examine differences between male and female delinquents, the effects of foster care on children, and interfamilial processes that facilitate criminal behavior. Efforts to support children and families at risk of abuse and neglect should be reexamined in light of the results of our study, which adds to the emerging knowledge base regarding the relationships between violence experienced in early childhood, and future criminal behavior.     

The Development of Delinquency and Perceived Friendship Quality in Adolescent Best Friendship Dyads

The present study examines both the unique and the combined role of best friends' delinquency and perceived friendship quality in the development of adolescent delinquency. Questionnaire data were gathered from 435 Dutch adolescent best friends (mean age at first wave = 12.97) over a period of 5 years with annual assessments. Results showed that mean levels of delinquency and perceived friendship quality increased over time. Adolescent best friends were highly similar in both mean levels and changes in delinquency over time. For boys, similarity in mean level delinquency between best friends was higher than for girls. In addition, only for boys, friends' delinquency is associated with increases in adolescent delinquency over time, and adolescents' delinquency is associated with increases in friends' delinquency over time. No bidirectional longitudinal associations were found between perceived friendship quality and adolescent delinquency. No interaction effects between friendship quality and friends' delinquency on adolescent delinquency were found. Thus, findings were more in support of the differential association theory than of the social control theory.     

Risk and protective factors for delinquency among male adolescent immigrants at different stages of the acculturation process

This cross-sectional study investigated a model of risk and protective factors of the family, school, and peer environment that predict adolescent delinquent behaviour. Three social groups were compared: newcomer ethnic German adolescent immigrants, experienced ethnic German adolescent immigrants, and native adolescents. Based on theoretical assumptions about processes of acculturation, it was hypothesized that the strength of associations between the variables in the theoretical model would vary between newcomer immigrants and native adolescents and also between newcomer and experienced immigrants, but would be similar for experienced immigrants and native adolescents; these hypotheses were supported. Findings suggest that certain risk factors, such as parental violence and involvement with delinquent peers, are more strongly related to delinquency among newcomer immigrants than among experienced immigrants and native adolescents, whereas certain protective factors, such as parental knowledge and school bonding, seem to be relevant for experienced immigrants and native adolescents only. Results seem to indicate that migration can be seen as phase transition with a stronger impact of risk factors on the development of delinquency among newcomer immigrant adolescents. This has implications for studying acculturation processes in immigrant groups as well as for group-specific intervention programmes.     

Female Juvenile Offending: A Review of Characteristics and Contexts

We reviewed current literature on female juvenile offending including the scope and nature of offending by female adolescents and the risk and protective factors across ecological contexts. We suggested that female juvenile offending is best viewed within a multidimensional framework in which female adolescent developmental characteristics as well as the ecological contexts must be considered for effective preventions and interventions. An ecological framework may assist professionals to target adolescent female offenders who are most likely to be chronic offenders. We offered both an intervention and research frame for addressing the issue of offending among our female youth and concluded that, as the incidence of female juvenile offending increases, researchers and practitioners are well advised to consider both the contexts surrounding the potential female adolescent offender as well as the contexts that contribute to her resiliency against offending.     

A Regional Study of Risk Factors for Drug Abuse and Delinquency: Sex and Racial Differences

Many juveniles are at high risk for delinquency and drug abuse by virtue of the characteristics of their neighborhoods, which are often economically impoverished, socially unstable, physically neglected, and rife with crime, drug use, and drug selling. However, a significant proportion of these youth do not engage in deviant behavior, while others participate to varying degrees. This study examined what factors discriminate between high-risk youth who do and who do not exhibit deviant behavior. Self-reported measures of several attitudes and behaviors known to correlate with drug abuse and delinquency were assessed in relation to reports of property offenses, person offenses, drug use, and drug selling. Additional analyses were conducted to distinguish between sex and racial groups to further qualify the relationships between deviant behaviors and attitudes. The most notable finding was that types of deviance that primarily involve material and monetary gain may be largely influenced by relationships with significant others, while deviance with potentially harmful consequences to both self and others are influenced largely by personal attitudes. Examination of individual variables showed that negative peer influences and positive attitudes toward fighting significantly increased the likelihood of reporting involvement in three of the four deviance measures, and that positive relationship with the father and prosocial values were inversely related to two of the behavioral deviance measures. There were very few differences in significant predictors of deviance for males versus females. Several self-reported attitudes and behaviors distinguished African Americans from Hispanics and Whites, even though Whites were reportedly responsible for a higher incidence of deviant behaviors.     

Developmental trajectories of internalising behaviour in the prediction of adolescent depressive symptoms

Using a community‐based Australian birth cohort, groups with distinct longitudinal profiles (trajectories) of internalising behaviour from early childhood through mid‐adolescence were identified for boys and girls from parent ratings. Six internalising trajectories were identified for both genders, comprising stable, decreasing, and increasing pathways. Hierarchical regression models predicted the contribution of internalising trajectories to self‐reported age 17 depressive symptoms for males (n = 557) and females (n = 633), after controlling for the effects of a range of adolescent precursors. Internalising trajectories and adolescent psychosocial factors, each contributed to the prediction of subsequent depressive symptoms, with girls and boys on increasing internalising trajectories and boys on a fluctuating high trajectory particularly at risk. Results suggest that parent ratings can identify coherent internalising behaviour pathways that originate early in life and influence subsequent adjustment.     

Family and Contextual Predictors of Depressive Symptoms in Inner-City African American Youth

Family and contextual predictors of depression in inner-city, African American youth have rarely been examined. In this study we explore the contribution of current and historical life events, family conflict, perceived social support from mother, maternal depression, and maternal explanatory style to the depressive symptoms of inner-city African American school-age (M = 10.7 years) children. Home interviews were conducted with 89 mother and child dyads living in moderate- to high-violent areas of a southeastern city. Regression analyses revealed that the children in this sample with higher levels of depressive symptoms had higher levels of child-reported everyday stress, were more likely to have been abused at some point in their past, came from homes with mothers who were less well educated, and had mothers who reported higher levels of depression, a past history of domestic abuse, as well as a less pessimistic explanatory style. Implications for interventions with inner-city African American families are discussed.     

Effect of Political Positioning on Explanations of Delinquency: An Experimental Study of Social Differentiation and Representation

Why and under what conditions do subjects from diverse political orientations tend to offer different explanations of a social problem? Past studies have found evidence of a connection between political orientations and explanations of delinquency, for example. However, observing such differences among subjects with diverse political orientations is not enough to prove the existence of an organic link between social differentiation and the representations of delinquency. The aim of this paper is to provide an experimental proof of such a link. The results show that: (a) right‐wing and left‐wing subjects tend to offer different types of explanations of delinquency, but they refer to several common organizing principles; (b) divergence increases when social comparison between groups is activated; (c) differences are bigger if this comparison induces a discrimination; (d) the bigger the differences the more likely are the groups to resort to their ideological principles. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical, methodological, deontological, and practical implications.     

Chaos and Trauma in the Lives of Adolescent Females with Antisocial Behavior and Delinquency

Summary

Female adolescents entering the juvenile justice system have complex and serious problems in multiple areas of adjustment. Literature is reviewed on the prevalence and form of antisocial behavior in girls and on the long-term implications of such problems in adolescence. Risk factor characteristics, including family fragmentation, physical and sexual trauma, mental health problems, official arrest and self-report offending histories of a population of girls referred for out-of-home placement because of repeated and chronic juvenile offending are presented. In addition, with the exception of sexual trauma histories, these sample characteristics are compared to a similar sample of chronically offending boys. A treatment approach is described and pilot data are presented on its feasibility. Implications for designing empirically-based, gender-related treatment models are discussed.     

Measuring Symptoms and Functioning of Youth with ADHD in Middle Schools

The identification of reliable and valid means for evaluating the effectiveness of school-based treatments and completing diagnostic evaluations of middle school aged students are needed. The present study examined the inter-rater agreement of teacher ratings and the relationship between ratings and observational data in a middle school setting. The data are interpreted in the context of differences between a secondary and elementary school setting. Teacher ratings and observational data were collected regularly over the course of two academic years for middle school students diagnosed with ADHD. The results indicate low rates of inter-rater agreement as well as low rates of agreement between teachers and observational data, and between observational data collected in different classrooms. Inter-rater agreement was lowest in late fall and gradually increased over the second half of the year. Implications for conducting treatment outcome evaluations of school-based treatment programs and diagnostic evaluations are discussed.     

类推理的发展序列与年龄特点

类推理主要涉及类别层级包含关系的理解和判断。使用修订的类包含、替代包含和二元律任务,以162名二至五年级儿童为被试,利用Raseh模型分析方法,旨在揭示儿童逻辑包含能力的发展序列。此外,探讨了儿童类推理发展的年龄特点。结果表明：1）类推理发展中儿童最先掌握类包含推理,其次是替代包含,最后是二元律推理;2）三、四、五年级儿童已能解决多数类包含任务,其成绩显著优于二年级儿童。四、五年级儿童能解决多数替代包含任务,其成绩均显著优于二年级儿童;3）二元律任务对二至五年级儿童来讲均比较困难。     

Correlates of aggressive and delinquent conduct problems in adolescence

The primary purpose of the study was to test a hypothetical model for aggressive and delinquent conduct problems in adolescence. A total of 168 adolescents from 121 families were studied using several questionnaires and a semi‐structured interview. The following factors were considered: obstetric complications, temperament (novelty‐seeking), self‐esteem, family influences (perceived parenting, alcohol abuse/dependence of parents, antisocial personality disorder of the father) and peer‐group characteristics (peer rejection and membership in a deviant peer group). The evaluation methods applied included correlation analyses and testing of two hypothetical models using structural equation modeling. The correlation analyses revealed significant relationships between adolescent aggressive and delinquent behavioral problems and parental antisocial behavior; perceived parental rejection and low emotional warmth; adolescent novelty‐seeking, self‐esteem, peer rejection and peer deviance. The two empirical models, separately for aggressive and delinquent behavior problems, revealed direct relationships between paternal antisocial behavior, parental rejection, adolescent novelty seeking, peer deviance, peer rejection, and offspring aggression and delinquency. There were, however, two differences with respect to the relationships between peer rejection, peer deviance, aggression and delinquency. First, peer rejection was more strongly associated with aggressive behavior and only moderately linked to delinquency. Second, deviance in the peer‐group was found to be closely related with delinquency but only moderately with aggression. Our findings suggest that several pathways for aggressive and delinquent conduct problems are comparable while others were not. Regarding the findings of the empirical models, we conclude that only intervention measures that include parents, peers and individual adolescents may help decrease the incidence of aggressive and delinquent conduct problems. Aggr. Behav. 31:24–39, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Classification of Antisocial Behaviors Along Severity and Frequency Parameters

Antisocial behaviors were systematically classified along a hierarchy of seriousness or severity that also accounted for frequency of occurrence and heterogeneity of behaviors. Items from the CD and ODD schedules of the NIMH DISC-IV and from the Elliot Delinquency Scales were listed at specified frequencies. Nine mental health clinicians rated the level of seriousness of each alternative on a scale from 0 (trivial) to 5 (very serious). Reliability of the ratings was assessed. Over two thirds of the items showed excellent agreement among the raters, 8% showed poor agreement and 21% showed fair to moderate agreement. The overall reliability of a single rater’s score was 0.56 and the reliability of the average was 0.84. The classification meets high psychometric standards for reliability and has face validity. The final output provides a classification along a spectrum that takes into account severity, frequency of occurrence during the previous year, and presence of multiple behaviors. It is useful for classification purposes and for longitudinal tracking of antisocial behavior.     

发展的认知神经科学--神经科学与认知发展研究的融合点

本文介绍了发展的神经科学自 2 0世纪 80年代以来在早期突触形成、关键期及丰富环境对脑发育的影响等领域的一些突出成就 ,阐述了从神经科学与认知发展共同研究的主题来考察两个学科的整合的意义 ,并对发展的认知神经科学研究的未来趋势作了展望。     

Youth Depression in the Family Context: Familial Risk Factors and Models of Treatment

Research on parent risk factors, family environment, and familial involvement in the treatment of depression in children and adolescents is integrated, providing an update to prior reviews on the topic. First, the psychosocial parent and family factors associated with youth depression are examined. The literature indicates that a broad array of parent and family factors is associated with youth risk for depression, ranging from parental pathology to parental cognitive style to family emotional climate. Next, treatment approaches for youth depression that have been empirically tested are described and then summarized in terms of their level of parent inclusion, including cognitive–behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, and family systems approaches. Families have mostly not been incorporated into clinical treatment research with depressed adolescents, with only 32% of treatments including parents in treatment in any capacity. Nonetheless, the overall effectiveness of treatments that involve children and adolescents exclusively is very similar to that of treatments that include parents as agents or facilitators of change. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings and directions for further research.